| State of the Art |
| Cover Story | |
| Written by Jill Rose | |
 We’ve got the scoop on the nation’s first smart grid project, headed by Xcel Energy and about to change the lives of 44,000 Boulder residents.  XCEL Energy's 2008 Ford Escape Electric Hybrid car being charged using AC power at the University of Colorado Chancellor's Residence. With the exception of a few boulders, the project has gone well. “I was very pleased,” said Kelly. “I thought people might say it was too big of a project, that it was not going to happen. But people jumped in, and they’ve done a good job. All of the consortium partners are collaborating and working well together.” He added that it took about a year to get all of the partners signed onto the project. Some of the construction was slowed down by rocky terrain, but Kelly says that the project is in good shape overall, and Phase II is on schedule to begin this fall, with completion expected in summer 2009. The second phase will add about 30,000 customers to the new grid and enable Web portal access to all SmartGridCity customers. “That’s when we’ll figure out whether or not this will work—if we’ve gone too far for customers or not far enough,” said Kelly. Showing off As far as G.P. “Bud” Peterson is concerned, the project is right on the money. Peterson is chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he and his wife, Val, agreed to have Xcel use their state-owned residence as a show house for the project.  Jarid Feiertag, manager of technical services for GridPoint, shows one type of thermostat currently being used in smart grid houses. In August, the chancellor’s residence was outfitted with 6 kilowatt solar panels, an advanced battery to store power, programmable thermostats, and a dedicated circuit in the garage to charge a plug-in hybrid Ford Escort (on loan to the Peterson’s from Xcel). The new circuits and thermostats can be controlled via a Web-based online energy management system. For example, Peterson can access the password-protected portal from his office or using his Blackberry on the road. “From the Web portal, I can see how much energy is being produced by the solar panels. I can see where it’s going and direct it to the plug-in hybrid vehicle, the storage batteries in the house, or sell it back to the grid,” he said. Likewise, Peterson could return home from work at 6:00 pm and plug in the Ford but have the charging process begin later in the evening, after peak hours. He can choose to charge in two hours using a 220-volt circuit or in six hours using a 110-volt. The hybrid vehicle stores about 25 kilowatt hours, so Peterson said if he returned home and saw it had stored energy, he could “dump the energy into the grid to help reduce the peak and recharge it off peak.” Information from the programmable thermostats and the Web site means the Petersons can look at a histogram that tells them how much total energy was used the day before, how much of that was from the solar panels, how much was green energy purchased off the grid, and how much was from coal-fired plants. “So we can limit our energy consumption and control things like the water heater. We might say, ‘Okay, if we’re going to have to use non-green energy, we’re going to shut off the water heater.’” Peterson said he can easily envision a time when customers will use a smart grid system to select their energy on price versus sustainability, just as today we use travel sites to select flights by cost or schedule. The system also stores 10 hours of emergency power and is pre-set to keep certain circuits running when power from the grid is off. Those include the refrigerator, freezer, Peterson’s office, his wife’s office, and some minimal lighting throughout the house. Working out There are some kinks to work out, of course. Creating this type of system is expensive, requiring each of the partners in the consortium to contribute. Kelly said his company is fortunate to be servicing areas that are environmentally conscious. “They understand that we are taking a leadership role in this and spending a lot of time and effort and money developing renewable energy,” he said, noting that Xcel is the number one wind energy provider and the number five solar energy provider in the US. The Boulder project is projected to cost about $100 million, of which Xcel will provide $15 million. There is also some concern from customers about the “big brother” aspect of the system. Peterson notes that he and his wife have complete control over how much access and authority are given to Xcel. Although they’ve allowed a great deal of access by Xcel for this experiment, Peterson said he’d be likely to do so in a real-world situation as well, but he understands that not everyone will feel that way. Kelly said this is exactly why this type of experiment is so useful and should not be rushed through. “We’re looking forward to getting feedback. Hopefully, people will let us know if it’s too much information or not the right information so we can make adjustments,” he said. “I think they’ll need to experience it for four, five, six months and then give us some feedback.” Adjustments notwithstanding, both Kelly and Peterson feel smart grid systems have enormous potential. “I think people who are interested in the environment, sustainability, and renewable energy will find this type of system enormously attractive,” said Peterson. It seems futuristic to us today, he said, but before long, having greater control over one’s energy usage will be as ubiquitous as the cell phone. “It won’t be too long before it will be strange not to have a system like this—what do you mean you’re in Vail and you’re going home, and you can’t turn your furnace on before you get there?” he laughed. ### The RedCoat Publishing editorial department recently received five Eddie awards from Folio Magazine, including a gold award for this cover story, “State of the Art,” from the Fall 2008 edition of Energy Today. It won a gold award in the energy business-to-business category. Jill Rose is editor-in-chief of Energy Today, American Executive, Inside Healthcare, Welcome, and Northeast Executive. For more about the awards please click here.
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Dick Kelly makes it sound easy. “We knew it would take more than just thought leadership, so we looked for leading technologists, engineering firms, business leaders, and IT experts to help us provide the guidance, products, and services we’d need,” he said, referring to the country’s first up-and-running smart grid project.| < Previous Story |
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